The progressive metal style "djent" emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s with bands that modeled their use of extended range instruments and complex rhythmic cycles after that of Swedish metal band Meshuggah. The addition of a new vocabulary of melody and harmony by bands such as Periphery, Tesseract, and Animals as Leaders has come to define djent in a new way and provided fruitful ground for voice-leading and metrical analysis. In this dissertation, I approach analysis in two steps. The first step is the production of detailed transcriptions of four djent songs. The process of transcription has allowed for the development of Transcription Preference Rules, modeled after Lerdahl and Jackendoff's preference rule approach in their Generative Theory of Tonal Music. The Transcription Preference Rules account for the selection of key signatures, time signatures, and other features of the scores that may affect analysis. Second, using these scores, I examine the connection between the textual topic of change and the voice-leading and metrical structures in Periphery's "Insomnia" and Tesseract's "Of Matter." I show how this topic is reflected by techniques such as change melodic direction, multidimensional metrical dissonance, and auxiliary cadential events. Finally, I apply voice-leading and metrical analysis to Animals as Leaders's "Tempting Time" and Mute the Saint's "Sound of Scars" in order to show what these analytical techniques reveal about instrumental djent pieces. I show how shifts in meter in "Tempting Time" can be represented cyclically. I conclude by showing how the interaction of metal and North Indian Classical techniques produces a unique representation of Mute the Saint's topic of longing and frustration in "Sound of Scars."
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1808378 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Sallings, Patrick Nolan, 1982- |
| Contributors | Jackson, Timothy L., Virani, Vivek, Leenhouts, Paul, 1957- |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | ix, 399 pages : illustrations, music, Text |
| Rights | Public, Sallings, Patrick Nolan, 1982-, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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